*Disclaimer: This is just a guide for beginning players to show them some basic strategies that I have found very effective, and is not by any means the unbeatable “God Strategy.” Scipio Africanus is also not liable for any bleeding, swelling, or shrieking during the making/reading of this Topic

—This is not a finished Topic, and is a work in progress. This will be removed once Topic is Finalized—

As I have seen in the game, many people are not thoroughly educated in the ropes of Strategy and Formation building in this game, and this is my attempt to try and “educate the masses” so that even a person new to the game can be a pro!

Army Structure

#1. Always put Archers and Arquebusiers First in Line
Ranged units are the lifeblood of your army, and therefore they should be your killing power. I view Yari, Naginata, and Katana units as just the protecters of them, and are used to kill the other “protecters” so the ranged units are more exposed.
Then why put such an important and valuable unit in the front? you ask. Because then you can utilize than killing power earlier, but can still pull them back (or push the Samurai and Ashigaru forwards) if things get tough.
Once the engagement commences, you have three choices: A) Use them as an extra unit to fight B) Pull them back and fire at the enemy soldiers or C) Pull them back and either fight the enemies unengaged units, or just don’t use them. Each of these has a problem but C). A is not very good because if they route and all other units are badly depleted, all of the men around them might mass route and lose you the battle. B is also bad because friendly fire will hurt your own units also. But C has no problem, so unless you have good reason not to, just get them out of the way.

#2. Always Bring Up the Cavalry First, but then do Whatever With Them
But Scipio, that breaks your first rule! Let me explain. So ranged units are valuable, right? That means that the enemy might try to kill them early on with Cavalry or Ashigaru, so if you bring up Cavalry first not only are you protecting your glass cannons, but you can use these fast moving units to do hit-and-run attacks against the enemy’s ranged units, making you a large step closer to winning!
Once the battle has begun, what you do with cavalry is really based on what you think needs to happen, but I usually just pick off the remaining ranged units. These are also good for the end when you might be out numbered, but if you have more fast and healthy cavalry you can hit and run enemies and win.

#3. Always put Samurai/Ashigaru Last
These guys are good for almost anything melee, but there is no situation where any infantry unit will come out unscathed from bombardment from the all-mighty ranged units, so these guys are behind the archers, but not too far away so that any attack on the ranged units can be easily supported.
The creator of this game, Felix Ungman, already has a very informative post about where each of these units shines and how to use them effectively against other units, so check out this link if you wanna know more about that and basically the same for every unit.

Variations
These are just some pointers for building an army. You can do many things such as make two separate armies, or maybe making one of Foot Soldiers and one of Cavalry (one I like to use in the two maps where there’s a river in the center) or do whatever. I will make a Paragraph about most variations I see, but feel free to make your own!

Two Smaller Armies
While I don’t like this idea (as I will tell you when I tell you a counter to all of these formations) it can work against newer/inexperienced players who will just attack both. Just follow the same rules as in Army Structure and you’ll be fine. Hopefully…

One Foot Soldier Group and One Cavalry Group
On both maps with rivers in the middle this can be great. It can be so effective that once I killed all of the ranged units of my enemy before they got to me. Because of that he Banzaiiiiiiiid and I won.

Triplex Acies (Blast from the Ancient Past)
I personally am a big ancient history buff, but basically this is a formation from Pre-Marian Rome that consisted of three lines with the newest in the front and the oldest in the back. Just go read some Wikipedia or this link because it’s hard to explain in one paragraph, but it follows the basic rules and can be very effective. It allows you to support ANY gap in your line but has one drawback. This game isn’t like real life… i cri evry tim…

One, Big Line (With Ranged Units in Front)
Just one line with some ranged units mixed in/in front. You can wrap around the enemy but your overextended so he can just charge your center and break you. I do not believe in this but I’ve seen it work.

Blob
Not this one… One, blob, of, soldiers. I’m skipping the counter for this one. Just go up with some ranged units/cavalry and route most of his units. Did I mention this one is terrible?

Cannae Tactic
Hannibal was so good that even his tactics transfer well into the game! I’ll just tell you to read up on this one at this link, as, like the Triplex Acies, it would take too much time to explain. But hey, if Hannibal absolutely destroyed the Romans, you can too! Contact 1-234-567-8901 today for your free Cannae tactic!

Defensive Tactics

While I don’t recommend you go on the defensive, if you decide to because your teammate committed suicide or your bored as heck, here are some techniques I have found to my advantage.

Square
Fairly basic, but effective if your being assaulted on all sides. You just make a large square on a hill with infantry, and then put ranged units on the outside, and retreat when you get assaulted. You can put your cavalry in the middle or use them to annoy the enemies ranged units.

##Hybrids

Offensive Defense
Make it seem like your advancing on the enemy, but then go to a defensive position (usually in the center of the map) and make them fight you. Use all techniques shown in the main body and just wait them out. If waiting them out doesn’t work try something risky. I shall now go on to the secondary part about strategies and counters to make you even better!

Good idea! As I said, this is a work in progress, so I will add in all I can! Though I’m not gonna lie, it’s usually better to attack, because then you get to decide where to engage and your men have more time to regroup. So only defend if your teammate suicide charged or your force is vastly depleted.

i got a question.
i tried this strat and it dominates defensive players. but when i had encountered goddamn whole army rush, this strat got beaten everytime… maybe it’s my fault but
i want to know how to counter those big rush.
thank you

Thanks for the support, if you see me I’m either Scipio Africanus, TheMarianLegionary, or TheKaiser. Here is my idea. If you see them Banzai Rushing you do this:

First, look to see if there’s any good defensible location around you. If there are none, retreat and use the Terrain to your advantage. Use ranged units (my gods) and try and kite them and do as much damage as you can. Once you’ve inflicted pretty serious casualties, charge in all infantry and do with the bows what I describe in the main article. If you start losing, fall back and try again. There is no best way but what you should do is just go to the Tactics article by the creator and match up all the right units.

I dont know if this would work since i have never tried but i will say it anyway if my opponent used the now standard put your archers at the front then retreat them and then send out there infantry could i send out a samurai maybe two to take the archer fire then take all my archers to focus on one enemy archer at a time would that successfully bring down my opponent’s missle units

Once a strategy I had never come across (this was actually yesterday) drew me into a stalemate, and almost rekt me. I still lost, but I inflicted almost as many casualties as he did to many, with his units being numbered at 5 but all at 1/9 strength. I believe that it will become a stalemate, but during said stalemate, you need to draw the enemy into a place where said stalemate can’t happen. Like if you get locked in a stale, bring your army to a place where no matter what you’d win.

I actually love getting questions from other people, as it makes me think of strategies that I otherwise would have never thought of, and I actually think that answering these questions has made me a better player.

It’s crazy the support my very first post has gotten! I’m so happy that I’ve been able to make so many people better at this game. Also, I’ve realized more and more good players since I’ve made this post…